Tribological and Antioxidation Synergistic Effect Study of Sulfonate-Modified Nano Calcium Carbonate

A middle base number sulphonate-modified nano calcium carbonate (SMC) with an average size of 35 nm was synthesized, and its tribological and antioxidation synergistic behaviors with ashless antioxidant N-phenyl-alpha-naphthylamine (T531) in hydrogenated oil (5Cst) were evaluated. The results demonstrate that adding this synethesized additive even at a low amount (<2.0 wt.%) can evidently improve its load-carrying capacity by 1.5 times and enhance its antiwear performance; in addition, the friction-reducing effect of additive in the high load was better than that in low load. The SMC have a good synergistic antioxidation effect with T531, which verifies the nano calcium carbonate compound was a kind of multifunctional and high-performance additive. The chemical composition of the rubbing surface which formed on the boundary film was analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicating that the excellent antiwear and load-carrying performance could be attributed to the forming of boundary lubrication film which composed of calcium carbonate, oxides, ferrites, sulphide and FeSO4, and so on. Its ability to increase oxidation free energy of base oil is the main reason for increasing its antioxidant collaboration property with ashless antioxidant T531.